Love for 'Baby'

Molly has been mothering her baby this week. Last night she rediscovered this travel neck pillow, which she uses as a Boppy, and gave her baby a good feeding, both sides, while we sang songs before bed.
Here she is nursing again this morning.

She also likes to get on her hands and knees and have somebody balance Baby on her back, then she crawls around very carefully until Baby falls off. Oh, and she likes to zip Baby into the front of her coat to keep her warm, saying "just like Daddy does."

Singing to baby...




We've been having a lot of fun lately but when I go back through the pictures most of them can't be posted due to nudity. It's pretty cold in our house but Molly just doesn't like wearing clothes, especially pants.

We had a fun visit from Grandma last week. We've been playing outside a lot, including yesterday in the storm when it was 36 degrees and raining and the slush was floating in the puddles. Ick!

Here's Molly having fun with Valentine's stickers from Ganny.


Hah, Molly just thanked me for telling her to look in her kitchen for her cap erasers (which are among her favorite toys right now, along with a cardboard box she's coloring, a jar of uncooked chickpeas, her collection of buttons and her Highlights magazines from Beppe, which we read at least 100 times a day). She said, "Thank you for saying that."

That reminded me of how she's so into saying "thank you." I took her to my old office Tuesday to show her off and pick up a copy of an article I wrote, and she had her head buried in my arm the whole time -- crying if anybody tried to get a look at her. One woman gave her a lollipop, though, and as we were driving away all she would talk about is thanking her.
"I should say Thank You for the lollipop," she said.
I told her I thanked the lady for her, it was OK. So she repeated that, "Mommy say Thank You for me."
Repeat conversation. Repeat. Repeat. All way through lunch, all the way home.

Her best Thank You yet, by far, was a few days ago. I had the spinning wheel upstairs and was letting Molly put her feet on the pedals and touch the yarn if she wanted. At one point she asked me to spin (are you kidding?!!?), so I sat down and we made a little yarn. I got up to get her something from the kitchen and she said, "thank you." I said "you're welcome," assuming she meant for getting her food. She gets in moods where she likes to thank you for anything you hand to her.
Then she said, "thank you for spinning."
I said, "you're welcome."
And she said, "Thank you for sharing spinning with me."

Photographer

How do you entertain a little girl who's got a cold and can't go to play group? Give her a camera.



She has already taken a few shots of herself naked in the mirror. Delete!

Actually, it's nice to be home today. Last week was packed full of fun and craziness. We had play group at our house Monday, went to Devens for a play group Tuesday, Mother Goose on the Loose Wednesday and then Oma and Grandpa came!!! We took Molly to Boston Thursday and I didn't expect her to make it for more than an hour or two but she had such a good time she just kept going. She rode the subway for the first time, behaved at lunch and went to the aquarium and still had enough energy to ask to go to the mall. She had more stamina than I did, by far!

OK, Molly's tired and wants to go in Mommy and Daddy's bed to snuggle. I feel bad for her, but I love that she gets all snuggly when she's sick.

Play

Some pictures from the week:

We set up our keyboard in the growlry, which Molly thought was pretty cool.


Exploring Daddy's palm with a magnifying glass.


Walking around the kitchen in her "boots."


Practicing her latest obsession -- cutting with scissors.
Playing with finger paints.

'Give me space'

We've reached another milestone. Yesterday Molly kicked me out of the bathroom and told me she needed space. Hurray! It's a very sudden switch from needing me to run to the bathroom with her every time she goes, just to sit on the rim of the tub and hang out for companionship. We're still nowhere near ready to take her out of the house without a diaper but at least now I can kick back once in a while and let her handle the entire potty moment herself. That's a first!

Molly can be very sudden about that sort of thing, I've noticed. Sometime before Christmas she asked to take a shower with me one morning. Now she doesn't take baths. Period. She takes showers. She doesn't even want me to hold her under the water anymore. She stands on her own, asks for the soap, washes and rinses herself and then plays with the water on the walls and pushes it down the drain until I turn off the water. I get involved only to torture her with shampoo. She doesn't even want to towel off right away these days -- she tells me the shower stall is her house and there are fishes in there. It makes me cold just to look at her.

Speaking of cold, we got out of the habit of playing outside because it was bitter cold for weeks on end. Now that it's been back to the 30s and 40s I'm trying (sort of) to get outside a little bit more. Here's Molly in her snow gear.
And here she is having a delicious, snowy snack.

This snow came from the edge of the driveway. That's the cleanest, right?

'Show Daddy'

Molly has become quite concerned about her daddy's ability to find his way around the house. Any time he heads toward the bathroom she says, "Oh, show Daddy," and runs ahead to point the way. She cries and nearly melts down if he tells her, "Thank you but I can find it myself."

This morning she was suddenly worried that he won't be able to figure out which shampoo and soap are his and has told him several times, "No use Molly soap and shampoo."

The other day as he was leaving to get in his truck she told him, very earnestly, that he would need to turn the key. Don't forget.

She is becoming an excellent little micro-manager.

She's also been creating some interesting art work. She seems to be going through (continuing to go through?) an abstract period.

Here's the artist at work:
And here's a painting. I asked her to tell me about it and she said it's a picture of Oma and Grandpa.

Molly's bakery

Daddy says he's going to make a pizza dough. Molly says, "YAY!!!!"


"I can knead it. I can knead it."



And then...

"I'm cleaning up Daddy's mess."

Christmas trip

In photos ...

Cousins reunited at the diner:

Little House on the Prairie party, beginning with Uncle David's hay ride.




Patting Freddy's head.

Christmas Eve party:

Christmas morning:
We actually had four Christmases but I'm just realizing I stopped taking photos after about 11 a.m. so the rest will have to live in our memories.